Remember the old CIA stories of how to get somebody under your thumb? You bait them with a little cash they don’t need, provide disbursements regularly, and slowly increase the amounts until they expect the offerings and adjust their budgeting. Then, one fine day, you threaten to stop gifting and see what they’ll do to get your help paying bills.

And so, it is with no surprise that the federal government; in particular, the obtusely relevant DHS, has granted Watauga County (and no doubt myriad others) a small sum for emergency food and shelter programs. Now, you ask rhetorically, what does this have to do with terrorism, the raison d’etre for that un-American department. Perhaps you give a pass on the Constitutionality of the gift, noting the General Welfare clause. But seriously, people who need a bloated, centralized government to take care of such fundamental needs as clothing and shelter, are not free, but pets. (I borrowed that from former Asheville City Councilman Dr. Carl Mumpower.) What is worst, though, is that nobody has a clue to whom the funds are going. Agencies that meet certain requirements, such as practicing nondescrimination or, more essentially, eligibility to accept federal funding, are encouraged to apply.

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